Sega Master System Brawl Is an 8-Bit Throwdown

The upcoming Super Smash Bros. will be bringing together some of the biggest names in gaming on the Wii U and 3DS, including Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man and Megaman. You know who it won’t have, though? Psycho Fox and Alex Kidd. For that kind of star power, you’ll need to turn to developer Bonaf and their homebrew fighter, Sega Master System Brawl.

The game is still incomplete, but six characters are playable right now; Alex Kidd, Joe Musashi, Tom-Tom, Opa-Opa, Psycho Fox and Steve from My Hero. Bonaf is hoping to add other Sega Master System “legends” like JJ from Zillion, Dunamite Dux and even Sonic the Hedgehog, whose first 16-bit game appeared as an 8-bit port on the Master System.

In the video, we see three players in action, Joe Musashi from Shinobi, Wang from Kung-Fu Kid, and Mick from Ghost House. While the spirit of Smash Bros. is intact, the action doesn’t quite live up to Nintendo’s crossover fighter. Characters seem to have only one or two attacks each, seriously limiting the strategic aspects of the game. Much like in Smash Bros., battle arenas are taken from levels of the game’s that feature the fighters, but the arenas are closed off, preventing ring outs from being a part of the game.

Interested players can download the incomplete version of the game here for free. It may not offer quite the same frenetic, high-impact experience as Super Smash Bros., but it’s still a cool piece of retro fan-service that capitalizes on some awesomely obscure characters.